Coming into this weekend’s series, the Yankees and Orioles both knew their end-of-regular season fates… The Yanks won the division and the #2 seed in the AL & Baltimore would be missing the playoffs for yet another season. Really the only person playing for anything meaningful was Aaron Judge, so is still just one Homerun shy of setting the AL’s all-time single-season record.
Game 1: 2-1 Orioles
The Orioles scored first as they got to Yankees starter Domingo German quick when Ryan Mountcastle would hit an RBI single to give the O’s a 1-0 lead.
The game would remain 1-0 until the bottom of the 5th inning when Oswaldo Cabrera would hit his 5th homer of the season (a solo shot) to tie the game at 1-1.
Baltimore would respond the next half inning, scoring on a wild pitch off of Zack Britton making it 2-1 Baltimore.
The Orioles would turn to DL Hall to complete the save and he would shut the door securing the 2-1 win.
Game 2: 8-0 Yankees
The Yankees bounced back from the game 1 loss with a quick, 3-run first inning (Gleyber Torres RBI double, Josh Donaldson Sac Fly & Giancarlo Stanton solo homer).
They would add on in the second inning when Kyle Higashioka would hit a solo homer to make it 4-0 Yanks.
The score would remain 4-0 until the 7th when Gleyber Torres would hit an RBI single to push the lead to 5-0. Josh Donaldson would add on as well with a 2RBI single of his own making it 7-0 then the newest Yankee, Harrison Bader, would add on the final run of the game with an RBI double to get us to 8-0.
Jacob Barnes would strike out Ryan McKenna with runners on 2nd & 3rd to secure the Yankee shutout win.
Game 3: 3-1 Orioles
Much like the first game of the series, Orioles first baseman Ryan Mountcastle would collect an early RBI in the first inning, this time a double, making it 1-0 Baltimore.
The game would remain the same score until the 5th inning when Aaron Hicks would score on a wild pitch by Kyle Bradish, tying the game at 1-1.
The Yanks turned to Aroldis Chapman to pitch the 7th inning and he completely fell apart as he would walk in the go-ahead run with the bases loaded before being yanked from the game. Austin Hays would add on the third Oriole run with a sac fly later in the inning making it 3-1.
Baltimore turned to Dillon Tate to close the game out and he did just that, securing the game and series victory for the Orioles.
The Yanks head to Arlington to take on the Texas Rangers in their regular season finale. Aaron Judge has 4 games left to break the Roger Maris 61 Homerun AL record.
Jason Harris